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Colony Of New Hampshire

A Brief History

"New Hampshire derives its name
from Hampshire County in England, and was first applied to the
territory in 1629, in honor of Captain John Mason, Governor of
Portsmouth, in Hampshire, England, and also the proprietor of the
territory now so called.

At an earlier year, in 1622,
that same Captain Mason, Sir Ferdinand Gorges, and others, had obtained
from the
Council
of Plymouth, a grant of land
partly in Maine and partly in New Hampshire, which they called Laconia.
In spring of 1623, they sent two small parties of emigrants to settle
it. Some of these commenced to stay at Little Harbor, on the west side
of the Piscataqua River, near present day Portsmouth. The others
planted themselves at Cocheco, afterwards called Dover, further up
river. The principal employment of the new settlers was fishing and
trade.

In 1629, the Reverend John Wheelright, a former patron of
Anne
Hutchinson, purchased the Indian
territory lying between the Merrimack and the Piscataqua Rivers. He
afterward laid the foundation of the town of Exeter. During that same
year, this tract of country, which was a part of the grant to Gorges
and Mason, was conveyed to Mason alone, and then received the name New
Hampshire. By him the first
house was erected at Portsmouth in 1631.

In 1641, the settlements of New
Hampshire formed a coalition with Massachusetts, whose protection they
enjoyed for nearly forty years. In 1680, however, the territory was
separated from that colony, by order of the king, and constituted a
royal province, thereafter to be governed by a president and council,
appointed by the crown, with a house of representatives elected by the
people. No change of land titles was effected.

The first legislative assembly
under this royal charter was held in March 1680. It consisted of eleven
members. A declaration within their original code of laws was offensive
to the king, indicating, as he thought, an unwarrantable spirit of
independence. 'No act, imposition, law, or ordinance,' the declaration
stated, 'shall be imposed upon the inhabitants of the province, but
such as shall be made by the assembly, and approved by the president
and council.' This is believed to have passed twelve years before a
similar enactment in Massachusetts. Thus, early did a spirit of liberty
and independence germinate among the granite hills of New Hampshire,
and give promise of fruit which came to full maturity 95 years later.

In 1681, Robert Mason, grandson
and heir of John Mason, himself having been appointed one of the
council, arrived in New Hampshire. By virtue of his claim to the
territory, he assumed the title of Lord Proprietor, and demanded that
leases should be taken out under him. His claims and demands were
resisted in the courts of law; and although judgments were obtained
against landlords in the province, so universal and determined was the
hostility of the people to Mason, that they could not be enforced.

For several years, both Massachusetts
and New Hampshire were ruled by one governor. At the time of the
revolution in England in 1689, when Governor Andros was seized and
imprisoned in Massachusetts, the people of New Hampshire, assuming the
government again, placed themselves under the jurisdiction of that
colony. This was in 1690. In 1692, a separation was again effected, and
a royal government reestablished. In 1699, the two provinces were once
more united, and the Earl of Bellamont was appointed governor of both.

In 1691, Samuel Allen purchased
from the heirs of Mason all their titles to lands in New Hampshire, and
for several years grievously annoyed the people, by the prosecution of
these claims. In 1715, however, Allen's heirs, not being able to
substantiate them, gave up the controversy, of which a descendant of
Mason revived his claims, alleging a defect in the conveyance to Allen,
but at length, this long and unhappy controversy was terminated, the
heirs of Mason consenting to take only the unoccupied portions of the
province, and releasing all others. In 1741, the final separation of
Massachusetts and New Hampshire took place, at which time a separate
governor was appointed for each.

New Hampshire as well suffered
calamities during the early Indian Wars. An attack in 1689
upon Dover, probably perpetrated by Sachem Bomazeen, is noteworthy. The principal citizen of Dover at that time
was Major Waldron, a man said to be of cruel bearing towards the
Indians. Having decided upon a plan of attack, the Indians object was
to alleviate suspicion, which they did most effectually by a gesture of
respect. On the night of the tragedy, some of their squaws had obtained
permission to sleep in the fortified houses of the town.

The inhabitants of Dover had
retired for the night, and quiet pervaded the town. Doors were then
softly opened, and the signal given. The Indians had stealthily reached
their posts. They rushed into Major Waldron's house, and made for his
bedroom. Awakened by their yells, Waldron arose, seized his sword, and
drove them back. Again they returned to the charge, and while he was
attempting to get his other arms, a blow from a tomahawk knocked him to
the floor. He was taken and set upon a table, where he was treated with
insult and indignity. After feasting upon provisions in his house, each
of the Indians, approaching Major Waldron, gave him a deep knife-gash
across his chest, saying as they did it, 'I cross out my account.' The
tortured man grew quickly weaker and weaker, and when he was ready to
fall, an Indian held his own sword under him, upon which falling, his
earthly miseries were soon at end. Similar barbarities were enacted at
other houses in the village, yet it is said that a woman was spared
because of her kindness to an Indian shown thirteen years before. What
strange contrarieties sometimes meet in the human condition.

— A History of the United States, by Charles A. Goodrich, 1857 (edited)